Clay Figurine

A clay figurine is a small human or animal figure modelled by hand in clay, fired or only sun-dried. At Poverty Point, Louisiana, most are small seated women, many apparently pregnant, with arms and legs reduced to rounded stubs or left off; some show hairstyles, headbands, belts or faces. Most are headless (Louisiana Division of Archaeology; Gibson 1983). Washita River focus figurines in Oklahoma are usually a stick-like roll of clay with rough shoulders and head, with the torso incised or punctated; both sexes are shown and legs are usually absent (Bell 1980).

Oklahoma figurines are crude and apparently sun-dried rather than baked, with no visible temper, and are easily missed in damp soil (Bell 1980). A carefully made Middle Woodland figurine from the Cooper site, Delaware County, Oklahoma, shows dress and hair and resembles Illinois Hopewell figurines; protohistoric Wichita figurines are mostly animals, many apparently horses (Bell 1980).

At Poverty Point most figurines come from the earthen ridges where people lived, and in Oklahoma from village middens and refuse pits (Louisiana Division of Archaeology; Bell 1980). Suggested meanings include fertility symbols, healing charms, ancestor figures and toys; the forms vary and their find contexts do not settle the question (Louisiana Division of Archaeology). The key trait is a small hand-modelled human or animal figure of clay.

Washita River focus figurines are mostly 50–80 mm long, with some larger, cruder ones (Bell 1980; sample size not given).

Lower Mississippi Valley (Poverty Point, more than 100 known), the Ohio Valley Hopewell area including the Mann complex of Indiana and Kentucky, and Oklahoma and north Texas (Louisiana Division of Archaeology; Applegate 2008; Bell 1980). Southwestern figurines were not sourced for this entry.

Look for a deliberately shaped body, head or limbs. Poverty Point Objects are hand-squeezed baked-clay cooking balls with no body form (Louisiana Division of Archaeology). Stone effigy pendants and beads, such as the red jasper owls of Poverty Point, are carved stone and drilled (Louisiana Division of Archaeology). Clay pipes with effigy figures have a bowl or stem bore (Bell 1980). Because unbaked figurines crumble easily, broken pieces are the usual find, and in Oklahoma they are mostly represented by fragments (Bell 1980). Whether Poverty Point heads were broken off on purpose is unknown (Louisiana Division of Archaeology). Bell (1980) thought many Oklahoma examples look like children's toys.